Map: In Poor Baltimore Neighborhoods, Life Expectancy Similar to Developing Countries

About 'Baltimore's Other Divide'

In Baltimore, a divide: When violence flared after Freddie Gray was fatally injured in police custody in 2015, leaders focused on the hostile relationship between impoverished neighborhoods and law enforcement. Less well known is the divide in health care. In a city renowned for elite hospitals, the system fails to deliver the same results for the poor as it does for the wealthy.

Residents of Roland Park, Baltimore’s wealthiest neighborhood, live to an average age of 84 — matching the life expectancy of Japan, the nation where citizens live longer, on average, than any country in the world. In Sandtown, where Freddie Gray lived and the median household income is less than a quarter of Roland Park’s, the life expectancy is 70 years. That’s matches the average life expectancy in North Korea, an impoverished dictatorship where millions suffer from chronic undernourishment, according to the United Nations.

At 66 years, Downtown/Seton Hill and Greenmount East have the city’s lowest life expectancy, matching India and Pakistan.

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Map: In Poor Baltimore Neighborhoods, Life Expectancy Similar to Developing Countries

February 16, 2016

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